Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar is back, exposing Pakistan’s duplicity in claiming he was not in the country. Azhar was reported to have delivered an address at an Islamic seminary in Bahawalpur last month, his first in 21 years.
He vowed to continue his attacks on India, in the state of J&K and used derogatory language against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Masood Azhar is involved in cross-border terrorist attacks in India. We demand strong action be taken against him so he is brought to justice,” External Affairs Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said at a media briefing. “There has been a denial that he is not there in Pakistan but if the reports are correct then it exposes the duplicity of Pakistan.”
In January social media posts apparently from Pakistan based users, declared that Azhar had died in a bomb blast while returning from a mosque. It was later confirmed as fake.
Azhar is wanted in India for a list of crimes longer than your arm. He is regarded as among India’s most wanted terrorists, charged with involvement in the attack on the Indian parliament in 2001.
He is also charged with conspiracy in the suicide attack on a CRPF convoy in J&K’s Pulwama, which resulted in the deaths of 40 troopers.
At that time, Anurag Srivastava who was then the MEA spokesman, said “Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed responsibility for the Pulwama attack.The organisation and its leaders are in Pakistan and it’s regrettable that the first accused, Masood Azhar, continues to find shelter in that country.”
In 2016, he orchestrated an attack on the Indian consulate in the northern Afghan town of Mazar-e-Sharif.
Azhar is also a UN-designated terrorist and reportedly, during his address last month, described Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as a mouse.
India’s protest would matter little to Pakistan. It could well be that his sudden public appearance had the approval of the ISI and other agencies that facilitate and coordinate the activities of terror groups in Pakistan
